INSIDE HORSE RACING.

Awad's Jockey Thought He Had It

August 26, 1996|By Dave Surico, Tribune Staff Writer.

It's not home, but there's no place like Arlington International Racecourse as far as Awad is concerned. If not for upsetter Mecke, the Maryland-based Million runner-up would be unblemished in Grade I stakes in his three local appearances.

"I had a good trip," lamented Awad's jockey, Chris McCarron, after the Million. "Boy, that's disappointing. I thought we were home."

The hard-knocking son of Caveat won the 1993 edition of the Secretariat and last year's Million. Including Sunday's $200,000 second-place purse, Awad has earned $1,040,000 at Arlington in roughly 6 minutes 8 seconds of work.

All told Awad has run 53 times, garnering 12 wins, eight runner-up finishes and six thirds for $2,482,445 in earnings.

Triumphant return: Back in the early 1990s, when Shane Sellers was on top of the Arlington jockey standings, he usually found himself watching the track's richest races on the television in the jockeys' lounge. He lamented that it seemed like he would have to leave Arlington to ride "live" horses in the track's top stakes.

The 29-year-old's thoughts proved prophetic Sunday when he returned to the Windy City to record one of the biggest days of his young career. Sellers captured the $500,000 Grade I Secretariat Stakes aboard Marlin and the $159,450 Arlington Breeders' Cup Sprint on Ft. Stockton.

"This is where it all began for me," said Sellers, who was injured in a recent fall and is riding with two screws and a plate in his right wrist. "To come back and win a race like this (the Secretariat) is great."

Sellers started his career in his native Louisiana before moving to Fairmount Park in Downstate Collinsville. He moved his tack to the Chicago circuit in 1987 and went on to win five local jockey titles--Sportsman's Park, 1989 and '90; Hawthorne, 1989; and Arlington, a record 219 wins in 1991 and 1993.

He has since won multiple titles in Kentucky and Florida. Sellers said Sunday's victory was his second for the powerful Wayne Lukas stable. A foothold there would help him continue his climb to riding stardom.

Drawing a crowd: A track official estimated Sunday's attendance at 27,000 to 28,000. That ranks the Million crowd as Illinois' second-biggest day at the races this year, behind only the 34,223 that saw Cigar's victory July 13 in the Arlington-Citation Challenge.